Boomtown Film & Music Festival: The flicks

Actors film ‘Conditions Apply,’ a short movie about a young woman in Bangalore who must go to extremes once she loses her job.

Not willing to let film enthusiasm wain in Southeast Texas, 28-year-old Christopher Dombrosky decided to take over the defunct Lamar Spindletop Film Festival in 2007 and re-spin it to include live music. What was born is part South by Southwest with a local flavor.

The Boomtown Film and Music Festival is scheduled earlier this year at the end of February, as opposed to May, to coincide with school schedules, Dombrosky said.

Instead of a weeklong festival of films and music, the festival is three days and takes place in various Beaumont venues. (Check out a full schedule here, info about the live music here)

Dombrosky, who graduated from Lamar in 2006 with a degree in communication, has attended many film festivals across the state. He said he goes to many during the year to scout films for BoomFest.

This year, there were many entries collected internationally. There’s also many made by teenagers, which Dombrosky thinks is pretty unique.

“We’re very lucky to get a lot of entries from abroad from countries like Britain, Germany, India and Bulgaria,” he said. “A lot of these films are excellent quality. Many are in English and some are with subtitles.”

One film in particular caught Dombrosky’s eye at the Austin Film Festival last year.

“I saw the premiere screening of ‘A Savior Red,’ which was made by a group of young people in their teens in Texas,” he said. “I’m pretty amazed at how effectively they were able to tell the suspense without any resources or experience.”

On Saturday while films are screening in one auditorium, panel discussions will be held in the cafe area of the Art Museum of Southeast Texas. There will be four throughout the day and people are invited to walk from screening area to the panels to participate.

“People making their own movie can look at works of other low-budget films and how they go about doing that,” he said.

Pleadings, screening at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas